


Jeno Through the Walmart Window.

by FloralAttack



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Briefly mention members or will be seen, Everyone somehow works at Walmart?, Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Walmart, Jisung and Chenle for dance captain 2020, Other, Real Life Problems, Teenage Dorks, and a hell of a lot of damn drama., i'm not good at tagsss, ot18
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-07-13 05:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16011593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloralAttack/pseuds/FloralAttack
Summary: Walmart, home to many weird customers and interesting people. Jeno just wanted to gain some extra cash for the summer, that was until Jeno spotted a small Chinese boy in the corner of the backroom. Jaemin and himself are bickering best friends who spruce up their lives with a competitive score boarding system.Although, Renjun is hiding a serious family secret.(Basically, everyone works at Walmart and attends the same school where the drama is key.)





	1. Are you eighteen or older?

It wasn’t a busy day that’s for sure. Jeno’s legs rested amongst the cash register serving table as he flicked to the next page in the magazine. With every page, he read the more he questioned as to why people actually shop in this horror of a store. As Walmart was one of the ‘best’ department stores in the US, he wondered why he didn’t just take the job at Target. His older brother Doyoung had warned him about the bore working at Walmart would be considering he was a know-it-all. Jeno had to admit that it was as good as he was going to get. A pair of hands snatched the magazine out of the boy’s hands and was thrown on the floor.

“Just because you’re older than me, does not mean you get to slack off.” The deep voice of his younger best friend echoed through his ears. This kid’s voice hasn’t even fully dropped yet but still, he’s on a better wage? How could that even happen considering they both got the job at the same time?

“And, who said that?” Jeno asked inquisitively, raising an eyebrow for the extra effect.

“I did, you have a problem with it?” The whining boy asked. Jeno shook his head and pulled out another magazine from the stand and started reading it.

“You know, your standup comedy is not getting any funnier Jaemin. It’s just as bad as mine.”With a fake gasp, Jaemin walked off with a strut to the candy aisle. Jeno laughed to himself before hearing an announcement over the loudspeaker.

_**There has been a new range of stock unloaded in the back of the warehouse, Jeno please help out back. Jeno please help out back. Over.** _

The boy sighed as he placed his now numb legs onto the floor. With a quick push, he left his register to walk to the back of the warehouse. You see, this store was very large in the sense that Jeno got lost every time he would come back from his 15-minute breaks and would have to ask for help from a senior employee. As he pushed open the bulky doors the smell of cardboard filled the air, the loud beeping of heavy machinery and a small boy sitting in the corner unwrapping a box. He scanned through his head at the familiar workers around the store, but his face didn’t ring any bells. Jeno couldn’t describe what or who the boy made him remember but that he didn’t look like he was from around here. He was pulled out his thoughts by a constant beeping from behind him. Alerted, he looked behind him to see his manager Ten within the forklift clearly annoyed.

“I get that you’re staring at the new guy, but please move?” He kept honking the horn in different patterns to seem like popular songs at the time, specifically that new Drake song everyone was obsessed with. With a huff and a small wave, Jeno moved behind one of the boxes to observe on the boy some more. From what he saw the new boy wasn’t getting along with the box cutter in his hand. It seemed that no one had taught him the basic training that you are permitted to do. The taller boy took a shaky breath in. This was it. He was going to introduce himself and leave a great impression without making a complete idiot of himself. Jeno pushed himself out from behind the pallets of boxes and made a beeline for the boy. He took a deep breath before hearing a slight mutter.

“Hello?” The smaller boy muttered. Jeno’s heart was running at a rapid pace, hell he’d only seen this boy for a literal five minutes and his heart was already beating out of his chest. He thought of all the ways he could introduce himself, in English, Korean, Pig Latin, but he instead accidentally went with-.

  
“You don’t look like you’re from here.” Jeno blurted out. His hands flew straight towards his mouth. The boy furrowed his eyebrows and let out a soft smile. He placed the box cutter beside him and focused back onto Jeno. The nameless boy shook his head in response.

“You’re right, I’m a transfer student from China.” Jeno thanked the lord internally that he didn’t quite embarrass himself but used that information to try and find out more.

“Ah, that’s really cool! Welcome to the country. I’m Jeno.”  
“Nice to meet you, I’m Renjun-.”

“And I’m Jaemin!” Jeno looked over at the pink haired boy that now stood next to him. He was definitely not getting that kid a chocolate bar during break time. Within the next few minutes, Jaemin had already given Renjun the low down of the store and the correct ways to do things. The young worker that earns more than him, wins again.

Jeno: 0

Jaemin: 1

It was on.

 

_**Assistance needed in Checkout 4, Assistance needed in Checkout 4.** _

Jeno gave a quick way to the boys and made his way out of the storeroom towards the main store. With every walk not only did he notice that he would get lost, but there were a bunch of weird people that shopped here. For instance, the other day he saw a man shopping with his pet pig inside the trolley. Let’s just say that ended up in a pig sty. By the time he made his way to the counter, he had started to serve someone.

“Hello, Sir, how are you today?” Jeno asked with his brightest (fakest) smile he could ever pull. The man looked up underneath his glasses and shrugged. Jeno nodded his head just hoping that this man would hurry up. Jeno basically had 3 minutes until he was finished for the week and this man was going to try and make sure that this poor young boy wouldn’t leave. Washing powder, shaving cream, pancake mix, and a bouncy ball later, he was finally done 15 minutes after he was supposed to leave. Within the distance he saw a co-worker starting his evening clean up, of course, that had to be Mr. Lee Donghyuck. Now, Donghyuck wasn’t a regular cleaner he just casually danced wherever he went whether that be with a mop or vacuum. Although when he slipped over and hoped to the skies that no one saw him, that made Jeno’s day.

As his shift came to a close, he changed out of his uniform and waited in the parking lot for Doyoung in his beaten-up Ford Focus. He was asked to stay back to clean up but considering he had a busy day at school the next day, he decided to just go straight home for the better. His brother arrived quicker than normal and drove him home without a word. The youngest’s dinner was on the table with foil over the top to keep it heated. His mother must’ve already left for work. He sat down and started to eat.

“How was work? Anything good happen?”Doyoung mumbled from the kitchen behind him. Jeno quickly placed a piece of pork into his mouth and shook his head.

 “We have a new kid from China,” Jeno mumbled with a hand in front of his mouth. Doyoung gave a hum in response. He heard shuffling from behind him and looked back.

 “Ah, what’s his name?”Jeno shuffled his chair to face sideways so that he could continue the conversation without his neck cramping up.

 “Renjun. He seems nice.” Doyoung’s eyes lit up with the mention of the name. That made the poor boy confused how Doyoung knew the new transfer.

 “Sicheng’s younger brother is named Renjun. That might be him because he said he was moving over at the end of last month.” Jeno dropped his fork at the mention of Sicheng. He was the Senior Dance Captain and most importantly apart of the school leadership committee. If Renjun was his brother than that meant he was either creative or born to be some type of leader due to that whole family being talked about how talented they were. Jeno picked his fork up back up and placed a carrot into his mouth.

Like Dong Sicheng’s younger brother? I didn’t know he had any?”Doyoung gave a small chuckle.

“His entire family lives here. Sicheng has two younger brothers and two cousins. The ones you know all go to our school, didn’t you know that?” Jeno shook his head before clearing his plate.

 “No, I just thought that it was only him. By the way, he was kind of reminding me of Sicheng’s shyness.”

 “How would you know he’s shy? He could be like Chenle for all we know.” Jeno and Doyoung laughed together while starting to wash the dishes.

 “Jen, it’s nine. You should probably head to bed.”Doyoung pressed a kiss to the top of Jeno’s head and waved him off. He watched as his younger brother ran up the carpeted stairs two at a time. He smiled to himself before sitting on the couch to watch re-runs of his favorite shows.

The darkness of the room scared him, he quickly ran a hand under his pillow until his pajamas were within reach. After getting changed he sprinted towards the bed and jumped onto it. He watched as the older teenagers were lining up at each other’s houses for parties of such and the street lamps that glowed from a distance. His phone was lighting up beside him as he took a peek at who they were from. Typical, it was Jaemin. He swiped his phone open and replied to the series of memes and gifs the younger boy was sending him until he finally fell asleep from exhaustion.

The sun was blinding the poor boy’s eyes as he woke up, smart one to leave the blinds open last night. A hand was running through his hair as he adjusted his eyes to the light.

“Do you want to go to school today?” Doyoung asked trying to see his brother’s reaction. Jeno let out a small hum and pushed himself up. His older brother was already dressed in his blazer, white dress shirt, black pants, and a tie. The younger of the two got himself ready before reading a text from Jaemin asking if he could borrow his notes for the Calculus exam for the next week. Jeno typed a quick ‘ok back’ and was out the door within seconds. The school wasn’t far away from the family lived, but there was a lot of traffic to overcome. The boy looked out at the window which showcased the buildings and stores flying past. His thoughts became scattered as he disconnected from reality. Doyoung and his senior friends were in their final year. Jeno only had three years left, but it seemed to be going by so fast. In all honesty, Jaemin appeared within his thoughts. He’d known the boy since he was born with both of their father’s being co-workers, they were best friends who didn’t exactly act like friends. Jaemin and Jeno did everything together and even became competitive for what they did, even during work. Currently, Jaemin was infatuated with soccer and no longer had time to be around Jeno at school, although he’d always been around on weekdays or weekends. The slam of a car door made the boy jump in his seat. He got himself out of the car and brought his bag onto his shoulder. The school wasn’t big nor was it the best school in the district, something about it just made everyone scared. Probably because of the notable alumni that had turned their childhood dreams into reality.

He took the first step into the building, and that’s when he saw them.


	2. Great pronunciation, idiot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 你 好 - nĭ hăo/Hello or Hi.

As the foreigners walked down the school corridor people were practically jumping out of the way for the clear path. Jeno was shocked to see that people had so much dedication and honor to treat them with the highest standings. It was of those scenes you see in exaggerated dramas where the popular people would walk down the halls. The weird thing was only Sicheng was the well-known one, not Chenle nor Kun or Lucas. The boy wondered where Renjun was. Doyoung said he was Sicheng’s younger brother so why wasn’t he there with them. He was pulled out of his thoughts by people resuming to walk down the corridors and continue their previously stopped conversations. Doyoung tapped the boy on the shoulder signaling he was going with his older friends, he smiled, waved and ran to keep up with them.

 

The school was based on a hill which provided loads of stairs and made the looming threat of exercising a reality. With every step he took the more he noticed the cursive writing of the names of those who had left the school and became successful. To be brutally honest, he believed that all this school wanted was successful students and not lifelong memories which is quite alarming. His classroom was on the upper east floor of the fifth building in which was tucked away behind the senior classrooms that were more modernized and extravagant. People gossiped in the hallways that the senior block had technology-based classrooms and dance studios, even they had their own auditorium that was better than the younger students. Of course, Doyoung and his friends would say that was false, but this school is sworn to secrecy. There was an incident regarding some first-year students that were allegedly harassed by the older students, one day it was talked about and the next, it never happened. With all the thinking of the past years and previous alumni, Jeno had finally made it to his homeroom before taking a seat at his designated desk. Jaemin was currently mumbling along to some genre of music before he recognized his best friend’s arrival. He snapped his fingers and waved his hands around to get the older boys’ attention.

 “Yes, Jaemin?” Jeno asked with a playful tone. He moved his chair to face the younger.

 “So, did you hear about what happened at work yesterday?” Jaemin asked inquisitively.

“What happened at work? I was there you know?” Jeno responded back sarcastically. Jaemin rolled his eyes in response.

“I know you were there stupid! Apparently, Ten had a fight with Yuta. I know what it was all about.” Jeno’s mouth opened wide before moving closer to the boy.

“You mean our manager and the actual manager? What did they fight about?” Jeno spoke quickly and looked around before focusing back on Jaemin.

“I don’t know.” Jeno couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“But, you said that you knew?” Jaemin shook his head before kicking his legs off the desk he was sitting on.

 “No, silly! I heard it from Donghyuck who said he heard it from Taeyong who heard it from Sicheng who heard it from Yuta himself.” Jaemin laughed at Jeno before hitting him playfully in the arm. Jeno took a deep breath and moved back to his seat.

“Then how did Donghyuck tell you?” Jeno asked. Jaemin smiled, acting as if Jeno knew the answer already.

“At Soccer Practice last night. Mark was practicing, but halfway through he left to go and woo Donghyuck on the bleachers.” Jaemin lifted himself off the desk and sat down facing the older.

“What a surprise, it’s not like that doesn’t happen all the time.” Jeno looked towards the front of the classroom before he heard a knock on the door. In the flesh was the small boy that interested him the day previous. His hair was parted in the middle, the tie was far too long for him and on his right wrist, he wore a bracelet that glowed from the sun’s reflection. He pushed himself up from his seat and watched out of the corner of his eye, Jaemin does the same. Oh boy, was it on. Jeno skidded his way in front of the boy and bowed softly.

##### “你 好” Jeno quickly muttered. He thought he did a good pronunciation of the Chinese greeting, but when he heard Jaemin whisper in his ear. 

##### “Nice pronunciation, idiot.” He felt immediately embarrassed before bowing and greeting with a simple hello.

“ **你** **好** **”** A more precise pronunciation was spoken back. Jeno looked up at the smaller boy who had bowed and gave a small smile. Renjun clasped together his hands and started to clap quickly before rubbing a hand along Jeno’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry that’s the best I’ve ever heard from a foreigner,” Renjun reassured the shaken boy and waved to Jaemin. It was something about the way he turned the situation from negative into something positive, Jeno admired the people who had that skill. He could gladfully say, he won this battle.

 

**Jeno: 1**

**Jaemin: 1**

He looked over his shoulder at his completive best friend and gave him a smirk. Jaemin nodded in defeat before sitting back down in his seat.

“I know this may seem like an out of the blue question but are you related to Dong Sicheng in any way?” Jeno asked as he leaned back on a desk to allow Renjun to be inside the classroom.

“Yeah, I’m his younger brother. I guess he has a reputation here.” Renjun spoke with a slight lisp and a hint of sadness in his voice. To Jeno, it seemed like he didn’t exactly want to admit that he was even closely related to Sicheng. He nodded in understanding.

“Do you have any siblings that go here?” Renjun asked pointing over to Jaemin.

“Yeah, I have an older brother the same age as Sicheng, his name’s Doyoung.” Jeno pointed over to Jaemin. “And, I’m not even closely related to him.” Jaemin laughed and started writing within his book, most likely his homework that he had ‘no time’ to finish the previous night.

“Oh, my bad. I just assumed you two bicker a lot that you may be siblings. I’m not too sure about how it works here. I’m sorry.” Renjun looked down at his feet. Jeno just wanted to raise a hand upon his chin to keep his head from falling. Sadness didn’t suit him, it was as if someone had just told him he’d have to leave back to China.

“It’s okay, I understand the cultural difference. I guess Jaemin and I will just have to teach you the sweet American way of living!” Jeno laughed at himself as Jaemin flicked a page loudly.

“If the American way of living is constant homework and working, you’d have it down packed within two days.” Jaemin scoffed before flicking the page loudly.

“Is this classroom seven? That’s where it says on my timetable.” Renjun spoke softly. Jeno noticed at how his eyes were constantly scanning around the room.

“Ah, yes! It is, you’re with us for classes. There’s a spare desk next to me if you want to sit there?” Renjun laughed before taking a seat to Jeno’s right. Jaemin currently had his death stare at his best friend and sighed. **Boom, another one in only 5 minutes.**

**Jeno: 2**

**Jaemin: 1**

The day had only just started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of many filler chapters.


	3. Who wants to do friendship?

The last lesson of the day consisted of Music. Jeno would have to agree that there was nothing that happened during the day other than the subtle glances he would give towards both Renjun and Jaemin and the distraught of pumpkin soup for lunch. The boy found that music was the one subject where there was no competition between him and Jaemin since they both worked together on what they loved. The teacher had set a task of forming a group to communicate how a certain emotion would be felt.

“It has to be an emotion that you haven’t felt before, something you’re scared or trying or believe you can’t do. There is a minimum of three people within a group, but two if we have odd numbers.” With the mention of three, Jaemin skidded towards Renjun and Jeno placing his arms around their shoulders. His arms squeezed the shoulders of himself and the Chinese boy together, a complete urge stuck within his chest. A pulsating that couldn’t be ignored. The rapid beating could have been compared to anxiety, being so scared and unsure about what was going to happen next. The rest of the class got into groups and had already started planning, ideas of lust or guilt were the main topics people were talking about. But, Jeno wanted to be completely different.

 

“Why don’t we do friendship?” Jaemin asked as he laid down on his stomach. Jeno sighed and restated the task.

“We can’t, we already know what its like.” Jaemin nodded softly before looking over to a thinking Renjun. Jeno’s eyes followed. The smaller boy was in complete thought mode, lip bitten and the fumbling with his hands made Jeno start to smile.

“Do you have any ideas?” Jaemin asked towards the thought train himself. Renjun sharply looked up at the boys as if he was brought out of a trance. His eyes darting as he tried to focus on a still point. A small finger was brought up. ‘One’.

“What about, love?” Renjun’s eyes showcased a type of sadness that neither one of the Korean boys had experienced before. The brown color of his eyes became hidden with the pupil of his eyes. A small darkness that only the boy had experienced had been snapped out and shaken off within seconds.

“I like it, is there any specific topic within the love that you want to do?” Jeno asked Renjun with a reassuring glance.

“The addiction of falling in love. Where you can’t be separated from those whom you love, you always have to be with them so that they can make you complete.” Jeno and Jaemin looked towards each other, an indication of how that was their motif. Jeno realized that the boy was speaking highly as if he had thought about it before.

“Do you know how to explain what it’s like?” Jaemin asks willingly, he shuffled himself closer to the other boys.

“Sadly no. I’ve never experienced it for myself. I just know what I’ve heard from others.” Renjun’s eyes diverted away from the boys. The fidgeting in his hands became more evident and Jeno wanted more than ever to encase them within his own. The urge was strong to not move over there, but in all honesty, he had only known the boy for a day and besides who in the world would know what kind of response his best friend would muster up. Jeno just settled with a simple response to keep the conversation moving.

“I haven’t experienced it either, neither has Jaemin. We’ve only watched people fall in love but that was because of those romantic movies.” Jaemin nodded in agreement.

 

Jeno found a comfortable position on his guitar and started to strum some chords down. He repeated the motif over and over again, but he just couldn’t find the perfect way to start. Music couldn’t at the time express that feeling. Renjun was bold in ways that the others couldn’t relate, he leaned back to place his head within Jeno’s lap. Somehow the sun light up the entire left side of his face and when he opened his eyes, Jeno felt he was being drowned in a certain unknowing instance where he didn’t know what to do. As soon as he knew it, Renjun was sitting back up once again. He was shocked to say it, but Renjun gave himself points by default.

 

**Jeno: 2**

**Jaemin: 1**

**Renjun: 143**

 

With the session over for the day, Jaemin had suggested a movie marathon to try and understand the feeling of addiction to love and of course, both boys agreed to it. The dreaded day had finally come to an end and thus started the weekend. With a small smile, Renjun exchanged his number with the boys and gave them a quick wave as he ran away.

“Are you coming home with Doyoung and I tonight?” Jeno asked Jaemin as they both started to walk their way out of the classroom.

“Yeah, Mum told me to come and spend more time with you guys.” Jeno reached a hand back towards his friend. The younger boy threaded his fingers through the gap and clasped his hands onto the others. With a quick tug of their hands, Jaemin was standing beside him covering their connected hands with their sweaters.

“I’m sorry for not spending much time with you anymore. Soccer’s been really hard since we have always been given the hard teams to versus.” Jaemin whined as he swung their hands in the air. They walked down the stairs and reached the front entrance where they saw the seats filled up with Doyoung’s friends, their hands disconnected quickly. All the seats were taken up filled by the older seniors missing Sicheng, Yuta, and Ten for obvious reasons due to the disagreement or since Yuta and Sicheng were currently together. The two youngest boys ended up sitting on the floor of the car between the older’s legs. Tonight, they weren’t going to be getting home early nor where they excited for that. The last thing Jeno could remember was resting his head against Jaemin’s shoulder as they drove through the drive-through at McDonald's.

  
When the older awoke, he found himself laying against his older brother who was caught up in a conversation with Jaemin and their mother who had just come home from work. Their mom worked as a nurse in the local hospital specializing in the children’s ward and constantly worked long shifts during the night which left Jeno to be bought up by Doyoung. The fault in our stars was currently being played on their small television, his brother’s friends had gone home already and as he looked around he locked eyes with Jaemin. His eyes were begging him for comfort and support. Jeno pushed himself up and sat beside his best friend, nudging him. With every nudge, Jaemin came closer and closer into the crook of his neck, eventually laying his head there. His mother and Doyoung left the house to go and get groceries from dinner.

“He’s smart, the both of us wouldn’t have of thought of that,” Jeno whispered under his breath as he watched the scene play out on the television. Hazel had started reading the book that Augustus had recommended. Jaemin let out a sigh before responding.

“He seemed so lost when he spoke about not having love. Do you think it’s because of his family?” Jaemin looked up at Jeno who was currently thinking.

 

“Unless it has something to do with his family not loving him. Doyoung may have heard Sicheng talk about Renjun at school or home, we can just ask him when he gets back.” The younger hummed in response as they kept watching the movie although Jeno couldn’t help thinking about Renjun. He was surrounded by people who loved him but never experienced a type of love he could admit whether it was romantic, platonic or within his family. The boy was mysterious in a way that left both Jeno and Jaemin asking for more clarification.

 

Two dings came from his phone, he pulled it out of his pocket and got blinded by the light reflecting from his phone. One was from Walmart notifying him of his shifts for the next week and another from an unknown number. He swiped the phone and clicked on the unknown number’s message. A large paragraph took up the screen as Jeno and Jaemin started to read.

 

_I’m sorry for bothering you so late at night. I know we just met, but something bad has happened. I can’t explain it but it’s something to do with my family, I can’t stay here anymore. I don’t mean to be a burden, but I just need to get away from everything at the moment, can I come and see you? Can you ask Jaemin to come as well?_

 

Jeno looked down at Jaemin and they both figured out what to say for a response.

 

_You can. Jaemin is already over so it’s okay. We’ll talk when you get here and you can have some dinner and we’ll watch a movie okay? My address is *** ***** Lane._

 

The message sent, and they received an ‘okay’ back. Within a few minutes, a knock was heard from the door and Jeno pushed himself up. He didn’t expect to see a bloodied boy standing at the front of his door. With one look at Renjun, he fell into Jeno’s arms unsteadily. Jaemin watched from behind. He noticed that the boy’s head and ears were covered in a mixture of dry and fresh blood that ran down his cheek. Renjun’s hands were clasped tightly around Jeno’s neck and they were shaking from fear. The boy looked so tiny compared to Jeno.

 

“I’m going to lift you up okay?” Renjun nodded and was picked up by Jeno and carried towards the couch where he was placed. Jaemin and Jeno both sat in front of him. That’s when they started to realize something bad was going on within that family.


	4. Reckless Youths

Renjun’s body was physically shaking, the fidgeting of his hands got faster, and his breathing was quicker than average. Jeno looked over at Jaemin who gave a small nod, glad that they both shared a common thought, Jeno took both of Renjun’s hands within his own and started to run a thumb over the smooth area of his hand. The older boy’s eyes met with Jeno’s slowly, a questioning look. No words needed to be exchanged as the conversation was between their eyes. With the harsh stare the both of them held, the others found that Renjun was tightly squeezing the other’s hands. Jaemin looked down at the intertwined hands to see Jeno’s veins starting to surface upon his skin.  

“Renjun, stop.” A small voice from the corner of the conversation appeared. It was soft, a warning although Renjun kept squeezing. Jeno recognized the harsh grasp and tried to fidget his way out of the stronghold. Renjun wasn’t letting him go. When Jeno finally got his hands out of the hold he saw the older boy’s face, blank, lifeless and confused. The Chinese boy looked at Jeno like he was not even there nor if he was even functioning at all.

Several dings came from a phone that was placed on the table, Jaemin reached for the phone to only realize the messages were in Mandarin. They weren’t experienced with things like these happening, so they did what any teenager would do and started asking questions.

“Renjun, is everything okay?” No answer, only a sigh from Jaemin. He tried changing his tone of voice to appear more comforting, but the boy wasn’t budging.

“Your head, can we fix that?” Jaemin whispered softly, a nod came from the boy. Jeno snapped his head to look at the younger. Jaemin gave him a wink, he could consider comforting a personal skill of his. With a few minutes away, the pink haired boy found the first-aid kit underneath the kitchen sink and returned back to the others. The sight he saw made a smile appear among his face, it made him stop to admire it. The older boy’s arms were tightly wrapped around Jeno’s neck, his cheek squished against his shoulder and a comforting hand that ran through his hair. Every time Jeno would brush a hand through his hair he would look at it and be met with the sight of fresh blood. Jaemin knew that whatever had happened at the Huang house wasn’t something simple and easy, it seemed to have been lasting for a while. The strange thing was the boy had recently moved into the States and had already been caught up in drama. The good news that came from the three of them was that they figured out how to fix Renjun’s wound, but the bad news was they still didn’t know exactly what drove this boy to come running. For the rest of the night, they all stayed close together while watching re-runs of Disney movies. The topic of love was not discussed among them, their project was still in planning.

 

Doyoung hadn’t seen his brother for a good couple of hours, only that he’d greeted him as soon as his mother and himself got home from shopping. He scratched at his eyes before opening the boy’s bedroom. Laid on either side of the bed was Jaemin and Jeno both facing in towards the middle of the mattress where a small hole was left empty. The older could’ve sworn that someone else was here last night, the boy shrugged and left the two boys to their slumber. The boy walked downstairs to get himself some breakfast, he started to cook eggs and bacon. Doyoung cracked the eggs and placed the yolks within the bowl and disposed of the shells when he saw tissues covered in blood. It wasn’t just one tissue but more than a dozen. The anxiety was building up within his chest when he looked around the kitchen to see if the tissues were from something else. He didn’t know where else this came from, Jeno didn’t have nosebleeds nor did his mother or Jaemin which sparked a thought within his head. _Could it have been the kid that was over last night?_  A notification sound altered him, he fished out the phone from his pajama pocket and was met with a message from Sicheng.

_Morning Doyoung! Is Renjun at your house? He seemed to come home last night before leaving. I didn’t see why he left, but my mother told me soon after and said that he threw a fit._

Doyoung had felt something off about the text. Sicheng didn’t see what had happened, so he didn’t know why he left. Last night the older had heard Jeno whispering to Jaemin about how Renjun left because of something at home.

_Hey Sicheng! Renjun was here, but he isn’t anymore. He apparently was bleeding on his head, so he probably went to go and get it looked at._

Doyoung pressed sent and heard muffled footsteps from the carpeted stairs. When he looked over his shoulder he was met with his younger brother and his friend who were both adjusting to the morning light.

“Morning,” Jeno spoke groggily with his morning voice which to Doyoung made him sound like an old man. Doyoung nodded his head to acknowledge the two before they both sat on the sofa to watch the cartoons, how relatable. Within a minute, another ding appeared from his phone. He opened the screen to look at the message-

“Who are you texting?” Jaemin asked.

“Sicheng about Renjun,” Doyoung mumbled back, he found a seat amongst the island counter.

“Wait, where is he? He was here last night!” Jeno sat up and snapped his head towards his brother. Doyoung looked up.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

_Hey Doyoung, It’s Renjun. I’m actually at work but please don’t tell him, I just need some time to myself._

Doyoung placed his phone down on the counter and sighed.

“He’s at Walmart.”

Two sighs of the teenage boys could be heard from the other side of town.

 

“Okay, we can’t go in today because we aren’t working. So! We have to sneak in.” Jaemin whispered as they both stood at the front of the store. Jaemin was fully dressed in black with a beanie and Jeno, well he was dressed in a yellow sweater and a pair of denim jeans. The younger looked the boy up and down.

“Stop silently judging me, Nancy Drew. Black doesn’t suit me.” Jeno scoffed at the boy before watching a couple exit with a few bags in their hands.

“We had to think of a good approach, we should totally go through the window.” Jaemin whispered while making hand gestures that made him ‘try’ to look like a ninja.

“Uhm, Tom Cruise. The door’s right there.” Jeno pointed before an ‘ssh’ cut him off. Jaemin started to tip top to the window and lean against it, Jeno who was done with his antics simply grabbed his hand and pulled him through the door.

“People like you is the reason we have no customers,” Jeno muttered under his breath which earned a dramatic gasp from the younger. Yes, Jaemin loved soap operas, a little too much. A small boy caught his eye trying to place a toy car on a shelf that was too high for him, he was an employee, so he decided to help. Jeno placed his hand around the others and placed in on the shelf before looking down at the employee. The face was all too familiar, the eyes screamed fear and without a second the boy ran. It was like one of those slow-motion scenes where the love of your life just runs away, although it wasn’t the love of his life, it was someone he was worried about. The way he ran meant he couldn’t face someone without the confrontation, he knew that Renjun didn’t deal well with it. So, that could mean that whatever happened the night before had something to do with confrontation? Jeno sighed and faced his best friend who was currently reading a comic book from the shelf. The boy had one of two options. Does he get himself involved to save him or does he completely leave him?

 

Ever since Jeno was younger he grew up with the idea of fixing problems. He had the motto of _nothing seemed incapable for Jeno, nothing too big or small._ But, this. He was scared because not only was he dealing with someone he was worried about, he was dealing with all the family ties he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoy, sorry for the late chapter! feedback and comments are welcomed.


	5. A Gut Feeling

“I don’t see why you’re so caught up with this Renjun kid, to be honest.” Jaemin flicked to the next page in the comic book. The two were laying on the Jaemin’s front lawn after getting back from visiting Renjun.

“If he wants to talk to you. He’ll talk to you.” Jeno watched as the cloud formations shifted, the sun was bright in his eyes and the wind was neutral.

“Why are you worrying about it? For all you know it doesn’t affect you.” A scoff came out of Jeno’s mouth. Jaemin pushed himself up from where he was laying to look over at the boy in thought.

“I don’t know. There’s just this feeling that tells me I have to. I have to do this. I’m obliged to.”

Jaemin scrunched up his face. “You haven’t even known him for a week and it’s like you’re his soul protector or something!” His voice was getting defensive towards the older.

“No, it’s not like tha-“

“Then what is it like Jeno?” Jaemin never yelled at him. Why was he even yelling to begin with? The older sat up and faced him with a stern look.

“I just have this feeling that something wrong is going on.” Jaemin sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Last time you thought something was wrong, you set fire to work’s staff room!” Jaemin had a point, he did look to far into things. He just wanted to make sure everything was truly right and functioning.

“Yeah, but this is different Jae. I promise.”

“I don’t know if I can trust you on this or not.” Trust was a key factor in the relationship between these closest friends. The only way to understand someone or what they were going through was trust. Their whole friendship had started because of trust, because Jaemin trusted him to keep his seat free until he got back from lunch, because Jeno trusted Jaemin to give him the science notes for when he was sick or because of the both of them when they’d said, _‘everything will be alright’_. For something like this to be confused about, Jeno was scared.

“Just explain to me what you’re thinking, feeling.” Jaemin gestured for the boy to open up. Jeno nodded and took a deep breath.

“There’s just this feeling in my chest, and every time I see him upset it grows bigger. It’s like I feel guilty that I’m not helping him, and by not helping him I feel like I’m making him more vulnerable. I know I’ve only known him for a week but, it feels like I’ve known him forever and I just need to protect him.”

Jaemin swallowed the lump that was forming in the depths of his throat, his mouth was dry and his eyes felt droopy. The words the boy spoke to him he couldn’t relate to but could understand to an extent. Jeno took another breath of air.

“Whenever he looks at me with those eyes I can just see the pain, and the hurt forming and it looks like he’s trying to keep it down. I shouldn’t get into all this family nonsense, but I need to get through it in order to find out what wrong. Because Jaemin, you and I both know there is something going on with that family. You know it because they’re too perfect for this world, no one can be this perfect, there has too be flaws.” And Jaemin couldn’t argue when he said he agreed with the rant Jeno had gone on. He was right to assume that something was going on, hell even Sicheng suggested it when he ran for the president last year. Sicheng said his parents couldn’t be bothered to show up since they had better things to do and that just confirmed it for the young boys.

 

After all their investigating and scheming, it was time for another shift at work. Apparently as soon as Jeno walked into the store he heard bickering between two workers. Let’s just say he wasn’t surprised of who it was between.

“When I said pull it off the shelf slowly, what part of slowly didn’t you understand?” Jisung wasn’t listening to Mark’s words. He looked like he had been at Donghyuck’s house for one reason and one reason only, his name badge said his said crush’s name. Mark had a very short spurt of patience with absolutely anyone, especially Jisung and when the two got into an argument, it became the hottest topic around the staffroom at lunch.

“Mark, seriously. I pulled it off the shelf and it just fell down.” Calmly said, Mark was about to give up when he noticed Jeno observing and ran over to him.

“You saw what happened, please? Just take my word for onc-“

“I didn’t see it! Gosh, let me walk through the doors first!” Jeno raised his hands up as the automatic sliding doors were constantly opening and closing because of Jeno standing in front of the sensor. Mark’s jaw dropped as Jeno made his way past the argument, he walked through the multitude of aisles and ended up walking into the sign in room.

“Jeno?” A small voice appeared from in front of him, he recognized that voice anywhere.

“Renjun, hey! How are you?” Jeno played it off. The best thing to do was to be calm around him especially after last night.

“I’m alright, I just want to apologize for last night. I shouldn’t have thrown the burden onto you and Jaemin.” Renjun’s familiar smile appeared on his face after he finished speaking. To Jeno, his facial expression looked genuine and he couldn’t suspect otherwise.

“It’s all good. I just am happy you trust us with, ahem, what happened. Speaking of what happened, is everything okay now?” Jeno started to sign his name and start time on the sheet, he made sure to give side glances towards the older boy.

“Just a misunderstanding, for now I’m just staying at my cousin’s house.” Jeno mouth turned in to an ‘o’ shape in finally understanding.

“Wait, who are your cousins again?” Renjun laughed at him.

“Kun and Lucas. To be honest I prefer them to my family now, I really like spending time my aunt and uncle.” Renjun’s face when he was talking about his cousins seemed to get brighter and happier. Jeno wanted to take a photo of that face and keep it for safe keeping.

_Lee Jeno, you’ve signed on and please! For the love of the lord, get to the front of the store._

Renjun couldn’t contain his laughter as he waved the younger boy away. With a sigh and a small chuckle to himself Renjun left the room to exit through the staff door. His shift was over.

For majority of the night Jeno had gotten a migraine due to the constant beeping of scanning items. He could’ve sworn when he wasn’t beeping, he heard a beep somewhere in the depths of his mind.

“Jeno! My man, my Spiderman, actually more of my Alfred! How’s it going buddy?” Yuta seemed to be too excited to be a manager. Jeno stared him down and shook his head. Yuta’s face became awkward, he changed the subject to his boyfriend but what was Jeno expecting? Yuta loved Sicheng, no more than love, probably was a soulmate to him. They fit really well together considering they described themselves as Ying and Yang and since Sicheng was Chinese, it couldn’t have fit any better. Jeno was currently reading a comic book he had pulled off the shelf to distract himself from the lovey dovey talk of Senior love.

“So! Sicheng just found out that his brother had just moved from China but get this right! Sicheng didn’t know that he had another brother. His parents had said that he was actually their servant, but when Sicheng asked his aunt they said it was because of the one child only rule. At home his parents don’t even treat him like their son and they don’t even support him in anything.” Jeno’s hands let the comic book effortlessly fall onto the ground.

“Sicheng told you that?” Jeno asked softly.

“Look who’s finally interested in my boyfriend for once!”

“I don’t care Yuta! Did he tell you this himself?” Yuta nodded and Jeno’s jaw dropped.

“Also that is not a way to speak to a manager.”

“Again! I don’t care. Are you the only one who knows about this?” Yuta nodded again. Jeno couldn’t believe what he was hearing. If Sicheng had known that Renjun was getting treated like that, why didn’t he say anything.

“That’s all I know.”

“You mean there’s more to it?”

“Sadly, too much more.” Jeno’s gut feeling was right, Jaemin was wrong in thinking there was nothing wrong with what was going on. A ding went off in his head.

**Jeno: 3**

**Jaemin: 1**

**Renjun: [ERROR, UNAPPLICABLE POINTS]**

Sure, it wasn’t a time to think about being competitive, but with this information. He could definitely one up Jaemin when it came to Renjun. The thing was Renjun didn’t know that he knew.

 

_A cold winter evening within the manor. A young boy played with several figures that resembled dolls. He brushed their hair and changed their gowns, they were supposed to have a ball. One doll brought her partner, a male that was dressed in all white. Another doll with a darker skin tone brought her partner with a lighter skin tone. And the last doll brought his partner, a male who loved him with every ounce of love someone could ever receive. They hopped on their carriage and set sail towards the wooden castle. The castle got closer and closer, the cheers of laughter became louder and the children’s echoes of rejoice rang throughout the doll’s ears._

_“What do you think you’re doing?” A man dressed in a black trench coat stood intimidatingly towards the younger black-haired boy._

_“Nothing papa.” The innocent brown eyes contrast the snow falling outside the window. He shielded his body in front of his dolls._

_“If you were doing nothing, you would not be being hiding anything behind your back.” The boy sighed and did not dare to respond._

_“Move aside from where you are placed, now.” The booming voice startled the younger. He didn’t want to move._

_“I said now.” The child moved away from carriage of dolls and watched as his father’s face turned from calm to horrid._

_“See this?” He picked up the male couple of dolls. “This is sickening. Who taught you this?”_

_“No one! I just thought that I could do that since no one has ever done i-“ His father threw the dolls onto the ground._

_“If this is what Sicheng has been teaching you then you shall no longer attend school!” The boy’s tears started to form._

_“You can’t take away something that I love.” His father’s smirk ended the deal._

_“You say that now boy. I don’t need a child of mine to have an education when I have a child who is setting an example. I don’t mean to do this to you, you shall no longer reside here with this family.” The boy listened to the words carefully, one word stuck out to him._

_“Reside?”_

_“Live, you idiot. You will no longer live with this family. Now!” The boy mumbled ‘no’, ‘please’ multiple times, but it didn’t help his situation. The only remainder of his mistakes was the now broken and bruised dolls on the floor, a reminder of his past actions that were still evident with him now._

Sicheng looked at the photo album his family had given him. In no way, shape or form did he remember knowing the boy when he was younger until he stumbled on an image of two male dolls sitting beside himself and a boy on the bed. He started to think.

_“Now, this is the only way to show that you like someone. For example, this doll and this doll if they connect their lips like this, it means they love each other very much.” Sicheng demonstrated with the two male dolls. An ‘ah’ escaped the younger boys’ lips. The only dolls he had currently were two males, so with this the younger believed that love was only to be experienced by two of the same. He didn’t understand that there were other forms of connections when loving someone. The boy didn’t understand quite yet._

_“Could you show me?” He dangled his legs off the end of the Victorian bed, his shorts became bundled on top of the sheets._

_“I can. Just close your eyes.” The boy closed his eyes. “Now, don’t expect anything. Have clear thoughts.” He took a deep sigh. Within a few seconds, wetness covered his lips. It felt awkward, didn’t feel right. The younger felt that this feeling wasn’t the one it was supposed to be with. He pushed the older away._

_“Why does it feel weird?”_

_“Because I’m your brother, that was a brotherly kiss to show how much I love you as a sibling.”_

_“How would I know if it’s right?”_

_“You’ll feel it in your heart, your chest caves in and your cheeks begin to blush.”_

_“I did not know that could happen!”_

_“I kiss papa all the time before bed.” Sicheng smiled to himself._

_“Y-you do? He doesn’t let me.” The younger boy let his head down._

_“He’ll get used to it. Have some hope. Now, you have to finish your homework before mama tells us off. Go now.” Sicheng pushes the boy towards the room’s door._

_“Goodbye Sicheng!” An innocent smile followed along by a burst of small laughter sent the boy running down the halls. The boots he wore made a sound of youthful happiness appear throughout the house._

_“Goodbye Renjun!” Sicheng chuckled to himself as he continued to read._

 

It struck Sicheng. That was the last time he saw the youthful young boy. The photo album dropped out of his hands and floated its way to the floor.

“Mama!” A loud shout rung throughout the house as Sicheng ran towards the living room, he wanted answers now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long chapter, thank goodness! It was about time.
> 
> Feel free to leave comments and feedback.


	6. The Butterfly Effect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a long break, this story is finally getting updated! Thank you all for your patience and support!

With small and soft steps, Sicheng left the living room. Every time a banister would appear, he’d reach his fingers out to lightly graze the polished wood. With both arms out on either side of the staircase he felt balanced, at ease if you will. Sadly, he didn’t get anything out of his parents regarding the younger boy. The only memory still existent was that of youthful laughs and innocent murmuring that used to fill the house.

A small circular window placed near the roof of the house had been dulled, the color and life that was there, was now gone. In Sicheng’s fogged memory, the house seemed cheerful. Light that used to fade in within the cracks of stained glass would leave rainbow imprints on the tiles. The boy stopped at the top step before looking down towards the foyer. Laughter clouded his senses.

_As he stood on the outskirts of the stairwell, he watched as a younger boy jumped on each of the rainbow specks in specific movements. Sometimes the younger would jump, other times he would twirl towards the speck. When it moved, he’d laugh and try to chase it._

_“Be careful Ren! You don’t want to fall and ruin mother’s dress.” The boy stopped and looked up towards the staircase. Innocent doe eyes were captured within the sunlight, the way his mother’s dress would leave a trail of fabric behind him. His younger brother looked like a princess._

_“Sh!” Ren placed his pointer finger upon his lips. “It’s so pretty.” The boy smiled brightly, admiring the dress._

_“Why don’t you give the audience a spin?” Ren laughed as he softly grasped the edges of the lace overlay into his small, delicate hands. He bowed his head and started to spin around in a circle. The dress flew in the wind, fitting the younger boy perfectly. Sicheng had never felt a sense of happiness then watching the boy laugh._

_“What on earth is this?” A booming voice filled the foyer. Sicheng gasped as he pushed himself to lean against the banister. The younger boy’s hand was snatched from the lace and intertwined with the figure. Forced to turn around and stand still, the voice forcefully tugged at the clasps and strings. It all came to a halt within a matter of seconds as the once lively dress was now crumpled at the boy’s ankles. Only left in undergarments, the boy wrapped his hands around himself. The figure tugged on the boy’s arms, the laughter was gone._

 

“That’ll be $7.29, thanks.” Jeno blurted out towards the uninterested customer. The lady blew a bubble with her chewing gum as she tapped her card swiftly. In a few seconds, she was gone.

“That’ll be $7.29, thanks!” Jaemin mocked beside him, making sure to exaggerate on certain words and phrases. Jeno shook his head and threw a packet of gum from the display towards him. Jaemin overdramatically pretended to be wounded, shoving in a few cliché lines from those dramatic rom-com movi-

“Ah, Lee and Na. Bickering again, are we?” Yuta’s voice was beyond irritating, the way he’d pronounce certain words really got on Jeno’s nerves, but he was the manager.

“No, we are discussing about plastic landfill.” Jaemin winked towards Jeno. He didn’t understand. Annoyed, Jaemin rolled his eyes before continuing, “You know, how our bags are plastic but it’s reusable?” If sound effects in real life were a thing, Jeno could guarantee he would be playing an ultimate trap remix of crickets and booing.

“What are you on Na?” Jaemin shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyways, I came to ask if any of you want any shifts with Huang? He’s still new so we want you gu-” Both Jaemin and Jeno’s hands rose up instantly, Yuta scoffed a laugh. “It’s settled then, you guys are done for the day.”

 

Within the carpark of the Walmart, Jeno noticed a lady struggling to fit her 18-inch television into her tiny smart car, in another corner he saw a child latching on to their assumed mother’s leg, but something in the far-left corner caught his eye. Through the windscreen of the car in question, it looked to him as if someone was crying. He couldn’t tell because of his crap eyesight, but with further concentration, he saw a finger being pointed towards the crying person.

“Hey!”

“Shit!” Jeno jumped back as he felt Jaemin’s arms wrap around his waist. “You scared me Jae.” Jaemin laughed quietly, “I tend to do that a lot. Whatcha’ looking at?” Jeno pointed towards the car.

“Jen, don’t worry about it. It’s probably just a mistake, I’m 100% sure they’re okay!” Jaemin squeezed tighter.

“Are you sure?” Jeno whispered. “Positive.” Jaemin responded as he turned the two towards the pick-up area. That feeling came into his stomach again, it was weird. He wanted to help but the universe just didn’t want him to. With a sigh, Jeno walked away. Although he’d occasionally steal a glimpse of the car.

 

“Sicheng told us. You’ve got some explaining to do.” The voice was stern. Renjun gulped down the lump sitting within his throat. He didn’t want to keep eye contact with the man, so he distracted himself by looking elsewhere.

“Speak. Now.” His hands leaving red marks on his wrists because of being held too tightly. He murmured, “I don’t know how. I haven’t seen him, nor have I stepped foot in the house afte-” The older man cleared his throat before staring at the younger boy within the passenger seat.

“I told you, to stay, away. Sicheng doesn’t need you in his life nor do you mother and I as well.”

“Then why are you still associating with me? Sicheng will remember me, the memories will come back! You know they will, I know they will. Just because I’m not your son to you, doesn’t mean I’m legally not your son.” Renjun screamed out.

“As of this morning, you legally aren’t. You may no longer use the family name, and you no longer have access your funds when you’re eighteen.” A single tear drop rolled down his left cheek, he quickly wiped it away.

“You’re alone Renjun. You finally got what you wanted, a life away from us.” The man’s expression was quickly changing, rapidly fast.

“I-I didn’t choose this.”

“Oh, yes you did. Your terms are as follows on this piece of paper.” A piece of paper was shoved into his hand. With that exchange, the man got out of the car and slammed the door.

Renjun unfolded the piece of paper quickly. As he read, he got choked up.

_To Master ~~Huang~~ Renjun,_

The Huang was crossed out, ouch. That didn’t hurt at all, he continued.

_Due to the jurisdiction of the Huang family, your name has been erased from the will of Mrs Huang Yin, Mr Huang Jian and Master Huang Sicheng. As your name has been removed, the family also request that the family name shall be removed within the next 30 days. Failure to comply to this term will result in a legal trial._

_Mr Huang Jian pointed out to the board that you were entitled to university and domestic savings once you turned eighteen, as you are no longer listed on the will. This savings account has been terminated and will be given to the family patriarch, Huang Jian._

_It has also been stated that there was a requested to prevent Master Huang Renjun to interact, associate and communicate with Master Huang Sicheng. Failure to comply with this term will result in legal and punishable actions._

Renjun’s eyes widened. What a show stopper, the final ending was that of a sad one. The paper slipped out of his hands and onto the floor. As the tears came out quicker and heavier, the boy rushed his palms to cover the tear stains.

 

_Renjun took to the stage, the lights casted on his face. He couldn’t see his parents, hell he didn’t even think they were here, but he knew someone was. Sicheng. He took a deep breath as he started to read the paper._

_“Where did it go, my inner peace and calm? Why can’t I find, my inner child and guide? Why won’t I hear in my head, the songs of love at first sight? Where has been lost, my sense of wonder? Why did it have to be, like this all the time? Is this the price I paid, for growing up in life?”_

_Renjun bowed shyly before moving offstage. The sounds of claps as loud as thunder filled the auditorium._

That poem was the mask to his childhood. Things he’d never get to experience and never will.

Renjun for the remainder of that night cried his heart out in the passenger seat of a car, within the left corner of the Walmart parking lot.

 

_Hey Renjun! If you see this, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. I haven’t seen you in a while 😊 – Jeno_

 

_My favorite translator guess who has more shifts with you now! That means we can work on our project more, right? – Jaemin._

 

_I know Renjun, I know everything – Sicheng._

 

_Are you making it for dinner? Mother wants to know. – Kun_

 

_You missed out on a great meal tonight cousin, let us know when your home! We’ll open the door – Lucas_

 

_I have some more shifts for you! Keep up the good work Huang! – Yuta._

  
And with one press of the off button, those messages of hope and courage disappeared.

 

Jeno looked out of the bedroom window, he sighed. He wanted to sleep, but he didn’t need too, not yet. Doyoung opened the bedroom door and joined his younger brother on the window sill.

“Jen, come on. He’s going to be okay.”

“Why do I feel like this? I’ve only known him for not even a week and I’m already being overdramatic!” Doyoung reached for Jeno’s hand. He interlaced them together.

“You’re not being overdramatic. Jen, this is you. You care so much about people and how they are, it’s not something to be annoyed about. It’s a gift to be so caring towards others.”

“Yeah, I guess your right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be afraid to leave feedback and comments, opinions are welcomed!


	7. Jaemin, what about baseball?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back!  
> Sorry for the long wait, school has been, just ugh.  
> After the recent angst chapter, I decided to reward ya'll with some fluff, backstory and special appearances from Yuta and Ten!  
> Enjoy :D

“I swear to god, if Jaemin starts on field this game...” Jeno sighed.

 

School for the day had finished 2 hours ago, but they were all still here. The soccer team had scheduled an emergency training due to finding out that they were playing against the top side of the competition. Freaked, Mark rushed the warm-up and now everyone on the team is playing horrible. Donghyuck was called in as an emergency player but had never played soccer in his life.

 

Jaemin kicked the ball over to Donghyuck and ran towards the goals. Donghyuck was lost on who to pass it to, so he just played with it himself. A voice was called from the sidelines.

“Hyuck, You need to pass the ball!” Mark gripping onto his hair as he made his way towards the goals. Jaemin raised his hand to try and get Donghyuck’s attention. Nope, not working.

 

“Donghyuck? I’m right here!” Jaemin yelled at him from the lower area of the field, Donghyuck took a few steps back from the soccer ball and was lining up for the goals.

 

“I’m done!” Jaemin mumbled under his breath while shaking his head. Donghyuck lined up and took three steps before kicking it. It looked like it was going towards the goals, perfectly in the middle as well.

 

“W-what?” Jeno’s eyes widened, the ball was going to the goal? For once, the ball was going where it was supposed to go to! Until the ball hit the post and all the anticipation died out and was replaced with sighs and whines.

 

“Hyuck! What was that? Jaemin was right there.” Mark made his way onto the field towards said boy. He was furious. Jeno could just tell by the way his fingers clenched around the clipboard.

 

“I just wanted to try!” The boy spoke bluntly while looking away from the captain.

 

“We’ve tried this too many times. Trainings over!” Mark placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder and rubbed it softly. Jeno could see the blush on Donghyuck’s cheeks from where he was. The two boys soon walked away towards the change rooms.

 

“Jeno, honey!” Jaemin had changed his voice to be high pitched as he came skipping towards where Jeno was sat on the bleachers. Jeno rolled his eyes.

 

“What’s with the honey?” Jeno crossed his arms as he looked at his best friend.

 

“Did you bring my honey? Don’t tell me you forgot!” Jeno laughed, although Jaemin was serious. Jeno reached beside him and gave the younger a small container of unpacked honey and a plastic spoon. His eyes lit up as he took the container lid of with a rush of excitement.

 

“Thank you!” Jaemin had honey smeared all over his mouth but Jeno just laughed.

 

“So, the project.” Jeno cleared his throat, “Addiction to love, was it?” Jeno asked.

 

“More like addiction to honey.”

 

“Shut up!” Jeno pushed his arm. Jaemin moved a few spaces over from Jeno, obviously teasing him.

 

“It is that. How are we supposed to be addicted to movies that show romance? You can always get that fluttery feeling, but everyone wants to experience it for themselves.” Jaemin wiped his palm of his mouth.

 

“Unless, we you know. Go and find romance ourselves.” Jeno wondered. He couldn’t even picture himself being lovey dovey with someone except the comic books in the staffroom at work.

 

“Sounds good, but who would want to fall for us?” Jaemin whispered. He felt a little to lonely away, so he scooted back beside Jeno.

 

“Hm, no one would. If anyone would fall for us it’d be ourselves.” Jeno laughed.

 

“You ship us?” Jaemin was sure surprised.

 

“Who doesn’t?”

 

“Good point.” As much as the two friends loved talking about their fantasy relationship, it was getting late. Both of them had been tackled with extra tasks and homework before the midterm. Jeno’s parents constantly nagged him to get a tutor, but Jeno wasn’t ready for that type of commitment to give up lunch breaks or after school time where he could be working. As they both jumped off the bleachers, they continued walking and talking towards the entry area of the school.

 

Jaemin took another spoonful of honey before giving a strange look to the other boy.

 

“Jeno?”

 

Jeno turned away from Jaemin.

 

“Is that Ten and Yuta?” Jaemin dropped the plastic spoon before pointing towards the basketball ring near the teacher’s carpark. Jeno, being as blind as he was, squinted his eyes to make out two small figures in the distance.

 

“Holy shi-” Jeno started, but Jaemin soon cut him off by placing his palm over his mouth. Jeno’s eyes widened at the palm over his mouth and tried to argue against.

 

“Can you honestly shut up for two minutes? If you actually listened, you can hear yelling.” Jaemin whisper shouted.

 

ZOOM, over towards the basketball ring. Yuta was busy dancing circles around Ten, which was ironic because Ten was, you know, a dancer. It was obvious that it was just Yuta showing off his so called ‘abilities’ in front of Sicheng. Bouncing the basketball in between each leg, doing a turn and then slam dunking into the hoop.

 

As Yuta cheered and continue ‘dancing’, Ten rolled his eyes at the show pony.

 

“Yuta, you’re doing it wrong.” Ten sighed.

 

Yuta bluntly responded, “Say it again, and I’m cutting your shifts for a week and giving them to Jaemin.”

 

If you haven’t caught on, the immature men you read before you are actually Walmart’s manager and Junior manager, shocking, I know. Ten and Yuta, friends from diapers, also bicker like a married couple. You could say they were the adult version of Jeno and Jaemin, but more prone to arguments. For the longest time Yuta had been trying to woo Sicheng, but let’s just say that didn’t sit well with his best friend, Ten. Resulting in years upon years of useless arguments.

 

When Ten landed the job at Walmart at 15, he made sure to get Yuta on board as well. Although since Yuta was a social butterfly, everyone miraculously ended up working at Walmart in the span of 3 days. Since Yuta’s social reputation was loved by most employees, the former manager decided that they’d make him the manager of the whole store. Ten, on the other hand, was promoted to be the manager of the junior employees.

 

So, after many years of friendship you’d think that everything would be ‘A-okay!’, no, you’re wrong.

 

“Why give them to Jaemin? He never works unless he’s with Jeno!” Ten whined back towards his manager. “You don’t know the half of what I go through when making the rosters.”

 

_“But TEEEENNNNN!” Jaemin got onto his knees and started to bow before the desk. The act was on, fake crying, the voice cracks, everything._

_“Jaemin, how many times have I told you? You cannot work with Jeno, he has to help Jisung sort through the toy sections price.”_

_“But, I’m taller than Jisung!”_

_“Y-you? Taller than Jisung, that’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth.”_

_“When I wear my 6inch insoles, I’m taller than him in a heartbeat.”_

_“Jaemin, I don’t want to hear it. I’ve got you rostered on to work Tuesday from 5pm to 8:30.” Ten ran a hand through his hair. His finger pointed on the highlighted section of the Excel Worksheet._

_“Just wait till I bring Jeno in here.” Jaemin pouted as he picked himself up off the floor. Ten’s stomach dropped, Jaemin was a piece of cake, but Jeno. God no, was he going to deal with that._

_“Fine! I’ll swap you and Jisung.” Ten started pressing the backspace key on the keyboard obnoxiously loud._

_“I love you Tennie Poo!” Jaemin waved and skipped out of the office. The door slammed shut as Ten let his head fall onto the keyboard._

“Good point.” Yuta dropped the basketball and turned towards Ten.

 

“You actually agree with me?” Yuta nodded. They started walking to the carpark.

 

WHOOSH, back towards the school entrance. Jeno had finally gotten Jaemin’s palm off of his mouth within a few minutes, although Jaemin had accidently dropped his honey onto the cement, bringing it to its inevitable demise.

 

“Looks like the dramas over, kiddo.” Jeno started to walk forward, the air starting to become chilly.

 

“Noooooo, it was getting good.” Jaemin whined towards an ecstatic Jeno.

 

“Come on, let’s get you home. Not even your mother can trust you being out after 6pm.” Jeno laughed as he took Jaemin’s hand to guide him down towards the entrance.

 

After Jeno had dropped him off, he made sure to yell up the stairs that he was home to his mother. As soon as she had heard his voice, she came running down the stairs and embraced her son.

 

“Hello honey, how are you?” She gave a kiss to his temple and hugged him tighter, rocking side to side.

 

“I’m good mumma, I missed you.” Jaemin giggled as he picked his mom up and spun her around.

 

In the midst of laughing, Jaemin’s mom giggled, “Na Jaemin, put me down this instance!”

 

Cute, Na Jaemin and his mother. The best mother-son duo this town had ever seen. Na Ha-Eun, a single mother who loves nothing more than dramatic dramas and her son, Na Jaemin. To Ha-Eun, she wants nothing more than to show those around her that there’s nothing wrong to raising a child without a father. When Jaemin was born, his father unfortunately had been having a secret affair with the neighbor, but like civilized people, Ha-Eun and his father talked it out and decided their differences.

 

Jaemin never need to be a manly man, since he had always loved the way his mother did things. He was a fan of cooking, loved gardening, watching dramas and the color pink. Growing up, he was never limited to what he could and couldn’t do. Sure, Jaemin loved soccer, but he also loved Friday night karaoke nights with his mom. The way they’d dress up in hats and skirts and dance around the living room.

 

Ha-Eun just wanted Jaemin to grow up without prejudice or hate, and like his mother’s wishes, he did. Jaemin was one of those people who accepted everything, it was just the way he was used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and feedback are welcomed! :D


	8. We're useless.

“Jaemin, no. The barbie doll doesn’t go on that shelf!” Jeno was about to lose it. With the price gun in his hand and Jaemin running around the shop floor like an elf, he was ready to leave. Ten had somehow made Jisung switch with Jaemin for this week’s shift. Jeno believed that Jisung was much easier to work with, height and all, but Jaemin-

 

“Well, it must go in its dreamhouse!” Jaemin, a voice full of sass, responded back to him. The boy altered the doll to sit on the chair in one of the dollhouses displays. Jeno looked at his watch, two hours left of this stupid section.

 

“We’re done, come on! Let’s go and ge-” He started to skip off towards the main aisle, but not before Jeno rose the price gun playfully towards him.

 

“Take one more step, and you’re reduced from $100 of handsomeness to 20 cents worth.” He could obviously see the smirk upon his best friend’s face, it was on.

 

“So, if my handsomeness goes away…does yours go as well?” Jeno scoffed in response. Smooth Na Jaemin, very smooth.

 

“Not unless I have a price gun pointed on me.” Jaemin reached into his back pocket and pulled out a familiar price gun and held it at Jeno.

 

“Spoke to soon Lee.” Jeno laughed as they started to circle each other in the small aisle. You could compare it to one of those cliché cowboy movies where the protagonist and antagonist had close up of each other’s eyes.

 

Several people witnessed the price battle but didn’t turn a eye towards it. For gods’ sakes, it was Walmart. Jeno was the first one to attack.

 

“Reduced to $97.65!” He typed in the numbers quickly before a sticker printed from the top of the price gun. With a quick shuffle, he slammed the sticker on the other’s forehead.

 

Jaemin gasped dramatically, “How dare you? Now because of that…reduced to $84.22!” The sticker printed and he stuck it on Jeno’s name badge.   


“Reduced to $21.68!”

 

“Reduced to $15.79!”

 

“Reduced to $1.05!” Jeno yelled at the other. Jaemin ducked as Jeno came closer and closer, ultimately placing the sticker on Renjun’s lips. Jeno watched as the smaller boys face warped into confusion.

 

“Oh shit.” He whispered to himself. Jaemin on the other hand was laughing his ass off.

 

“Jaemin: 2 Points! Jeno: 1!” Jaemin fist pumped to himself. Poor Renjun tried to speak, but the sticker was that it covered his small lips.

 

“Ren, I’m so sorry! I’ll help you with tha-” As Jeno’s hand contacted the corner of the sticker, Renjun flinched back away from him. With a wince of pain, the small boy’s hands came to cover his mouth.

 

Jaemin reached for his walkie talkie in his other pocket before clearing his throat and speaking into it.

 

**_“Uh, Ten? We have an issue...”_ **

****

_Ten sighed, **“** What have you done now?_

**_“I’ve done nothing! It was Jeno.”_ **

****

_“You think I’ll believe you? You always say it’s Jeno.”_

**_“I’m being serious this time!”_ **

****

_“Fine, come to my office now.”_

Soon, the three boys were standing in front of Ten. Who was like Jaemin, laughing his ass off.

 

“So, you’re telling me? You were having a price battle and ended up sticking the biggest sticker on poor little Renjun here?” Jeno nods. Ten had to admit that this was the best thing he’d had ever seen walk into his office.

 

“Can you just help him for gods’ sake?” Jeno whined as he pushed Renjun towards Ten’s desk. Their manager nodded and made Renjun sit opposite him.

 

“Now kiddo, this is going to be painful.” Ten laughed quietly one last time before looking back at the young teenager. Renjun took a breath (through his nose) and nodded slowly. Ten started to pull the sticker off of his mouth slowly. Jeno watched as the boy’s eyes closed in pain, meanwhile Jaemin was lounging in the corner trying his hardest to not laugh. Although for Jaemin, he had lost another point to Jeno. As Ten got towards the middle of sticker, Renjun’s hand went searching for comfort. His tiny hand gripped the seat he was sitting on, but that didn’t do anything. He tried to clasp his own hands together but that did nothing, until he found a warm hand. Renjun held it softly and cautiously. Jeno looked down at their hands and looked over towards Jaemin, who was shocked. Jeno lifted two fingers up with his other hand, Jaemin was annoyed.

 

**Jeno: 2**

**Jaemin: 2**

**Renjun: A+ for effort.**

Let’s just say as soon as the three boys left Ten’s office, Ten had already witnessed the friendship of all of them, but something deep down inside him told him that more was too come.

 

When Yuta had found out about the incident, he had spat out his coffee and couldn’t stop laughing for around an hour and a half, that was until Ten pulled the plug from his computer. That’s why you should save the roster.

 

The next day at school, the three laid inside the music room. On their backs and heads together, trying to come up with some good idea for their project. Jaemin was scrolling through a news article on his phone about love. Jeno was strumming chords on his guitar. He wasn’t too sure about what progression he wanted to do and Renjun, well he was thinking of some lyrics in his head.

 

“According to this article, it says that romantic love is considered as an addiction, drawing on behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging studies of both love and addiction.” Jaemin reads out slowly, breaking up the words he doesn’t know.

 

“What does that mean?” Jeno asks.

 

“Dunno, new article.” Jaemin clicks on a reddit thread, describing how falling in love is like. As he read, he starts to notice some similarities between himself and the other people.

 

“How’s this one? The moment you know that you are falling in love with someone is one of the most exciting and terrifying moments in existence. The heart wants what it wants. When the elation, the nerves, the butterflies, the anxiety, and the euphoria all come together, somehow you know.”

 

“That sounds pretty, people are so lucky.” Renjun whispered to himself. He could imagine himself being happy with someone, but his heart just doesn’t want to agree.

 

“There’s more. It says that you know you’re falling in love when time goes by in fast forward and you just want it to stop so you can be with them forever, in the perfect moment.”

 

There’s a moment of silence between the three, all that can be heard is the hidden heart beats of each.

 

“I want time to stop here.” Renjun whispered into the air. “I want nothing more than to just stay here with you while all my problems pass me by.” Jaemin turned to face his head towards the small one.

 

“Why don’t we? We’ll stay here until we get kicked out.” Jaemin brushed Renjun’s hair back before looking up towards the ceiling.

 

“Sounds good, I could fall asleep here.” Jeno mumbled turning to on his side.

 

“Let’s do it then.” Renjun’s eyes started to close, followed by Jaemin and lastly Jeno’s. Soon, the three boys were met in their dreams.

 

Jaemin didn’t read the final part of the article, the one that mentions how easy it was too sleep with your soulmates next to you. When they awoke, they were on top of one another. Their bodies got closer to each other out of comfort. They were met with smiles and shy squirms of moving away.

 

“Jeno! Hurry up, the guys want to get the new combo of chicken nuggets.” Doyoung called from the car. Jeno and Jaemin stood beside each other as they watched Renjun run towards them.

 

“How the hell are we supposed to fit you all in now?” Johnny called from the passenger seat. Doyoung’s senior friends included of Johnny, Yuta, Ten, Jaehyun, and Sicheng. The reason Doyoung and his friends went to McDonalds all the time was because Taeyong was the cute drive through employee that would often give them free things, also because Jaehyun had a teeny tiny crush on that said worker.

 

Back to the point, Doyoung’s car was tiny which meant that Jeno and Jaemin had to sit on the floor in the backseat, but with Renjun they didn’t quite know where to put him.

 

“Just get in and we’ll throw him in somewhere, he’s small enough.” Jaehyun spoke from the backseat. So, everyone got in their respective areas.

 

“Small gap, there.” Yuta pointed between Jeno and Jaemin on the floor. Renjun jumped over the seats with his head down, but as soon as he lifted his head. He was met with Sicheng’s face, his chest was closing in. He said he knew everything from the text message.

Sicheng obviously was just as taken aback as Renjun was. He caressed a hand over the younger boy’s cheek. Renjun flinched back as he saw a familiar smile.

 

“Ren don’t worry. I know.”  Renjun’s eyes shook as he launched from where he was on the ground towards his brother. The hug was tight, anyone could tell that. Sicheng ran a comforting hand down his younger brother’s back.

 

“I’m so sorry.” Renjun muffled out into Sicheng’s shoulder.

 

Meanwhile, everyone around them were confused. Doyoung smiled to Sicheng in the back as he stepped on the pedal. Renjun wasn’t letting go soon, he wanted to stay there forever.

 

Jeno looked over towards Jaemin with a sad smile. Their pinkes found each other as they made a silent promise, one that they’d only know about.

 

Later that night, Renjun was wrapped around his older brother’s figure. Sicheng wasn’t annoyed or sick of the comfort that his brother had on him, but he was happy to finally be reunited with the young boy.

 

“Hey Ren?” Renjun mumbled in response.

 

“Do you remember mother’s dress? The one you’d go around and play in?” Renjun nodded before sitting up and looking at his brother.

 

“Yeah, what about it?”

 

Sicheng gave the boy a smile before taking his hand and dragging him towards the foyer. It was the perfect time; the rainbow speck was on the floor.

 

Renjun twirled in his mother’s dress before looking around to see if his father would come. He heard a door open and shut, he closed his eyes before feeling a hand intertwined his own and another placed at his waist.

 

“Don’t worry, you have your older brother to protect you now.” Sicheng whispered as he started to dance around the foyer just like when they were children.

 

This time, Renjun wasn’t alone. Sicheng had finally realized what he had to do, and what he should’ve done all those years ago to protect Renjun. Now, he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of Renjun. For years, Sicheng had admired his younger brother’s passion and bravery to be who he wanted to be.

 

And at this very time, Sicheng realized he needed to grow up and be the protector Renjun always was for him when they were younger.


End file.
